Old Federal Road

For the next 25 miles southward, this highway closely follows the course of the Old Federal Road, the first vehicular and postal route linking Tennessee and Georgia across the Cherokee Nation. Beginning on the southeast Indian boundary in the direction of Athens, the route passed this way by Tate, Jasper, and Talking Rock. The Cherokees granted informal rights to open the trace in 1803, and those rights were confirmed by the Treaty of Tellico, Tenn. in 1805. Before that time, the thoroughfare had served as an Indian trading path to Augusta.

Georgia · United States